Internal Redirection (JavaScript)

What This Means

The page uses JavaScript to perform a redirect — typically via window.location = "...", window.location.href = "...", or window.location.replace("..."). The redirect fires client-side after the page loads, rather than at the HTTP response level.

Why It Matters for SEO

JavaScript redirects require the crawler to fully execute JavaScript to discover the redirect target. While Googlebot does render JavaScript, it does so in a separate deferred crawl queue — meaning there can be a significant delay between the initial crawl and the redirect being followed. Other crawlers may not execute JavaScript at all.

From Google's perspective, a JavaScript redirect is treated as the page's canonical URL — not the redirect target — until JavaScript is executed. This can cause indexation of the intermediate page rather than the final destination.

What the Platform Checks

The platform analyzes the page's JavaScript for common redirect patterns (window.location, location.href, location.replace). Fires when a redirect via JavaScript is detected on an internal page.

How to Fix It

• Replace JavaScript redirects with server-side 301 or 302 HTTP redirects wherever possible.
• For SPA (single-page application) routing: ensure that client-side routing uses the History API (pushState) correctly and that the server returns 301s for legacy URLs rather than relying on JavaScript to redirect.
• If JavaScript redirects cannot be removed: ensure the destination URL is also linked from the page as a standard href so crawlers that do not execute JS can still discover it.